“Despite the ubiquity of Google searching, and searchers’ demonstrated willingness to share their true feelings and unbridled thoughts on Google, what Americans are typing when they search remains surprisingly underutilised in political analysis,” he writes.

Search data in the final few days before the election will be most revealing, but one of Stephens-Davidowitz’s most compelling finds so far is that “the largest black populations are, on average, Googling for voting information at rates similar to those of 2008, rather than 2004, levels” – encouraging news for Democrats.

The method turns up other, more disturbing discoveries along the way.

Such as: “On election day in 2008, roughly one in 100 searches that included ‘Obama’ also included ‘KKK’ or ‘nigger’.”